What HSPT score for Merit money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If academic rigor and prestige are your only factors, you probably shouldn’t be looking at just Catholic schools anyway. There’s plenty of DC schools that are a higher tier.

If you are only considering Catholic, then Visi, Gonzaga, GP or Stone Ridge are the first tier of Catholic schools, just academically speaking.

Then, the other ones come in, if you want a bigger coed school, including SJC, DJO and BI. But, once you are considering those schools, you are considering location, friends, sports, etc, and not just academic rigor, so that’s why people are arguing the SJC, Scholars Program or not, is not so prestigious and rigorous that it is worth going to over a place that is closer to your house and friends.

I would not consider Visi academically better than SJC’s Scholar program. When DD was in 8th grade, both she and us had Visi as the first choice, primarily because it seemed more prestigious. But after several visits (open houses, shadow days) and asking lots of questions regarding their curriculum and evaluating school fit, we were much less impressed by Visi. They didn’t offer as many AP or honors classes, art classes were abominable and remedial, sports program wasn’t all that impressive. She scored 99% on the HSPT and was accepted into both schools, we chose SJC’s Scholars and the Cadet Corps program. DD loves SJC and all it has offered, and we have not regretted the decision. Icing on the cake - tuition at SJC is so much less, especially with the Presidential merit scholarship.

Completely reasonable choice, but again, you admit you thought Visi was more prestigious, and you ended up choosing the Scholars program at SJC bc of more AP classes, art and sports - not just academic rigor and prestige. Plus, you’re also comparing an honors program to a school as a whole. When just comparing Visi vs SJC, Visi is more prestigious and rigorous.

The problem is that Visi doesn’t have any sort of honors or scholars program, they just have the basic program for everyone and, academically, it just doesn’t compare to SJC’s Scholars program. When we visited Visi, we sat in on some of the presentations for the various departments and talked to the teachers about the classes, and they just seemed so average.

[Anonymous]

[list]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If academic rigor and prestige are your only factors, you probably shouldn’t be looking at just Catholic schools anyway. There’s plenty of DC schools that are a higher tier.

If you are only considering Catholic, then Visi, Gonzaga, GP or Stone Ridge are the first tier of Catholic schools, just academically speaking.

Then, the other ones come in, if you want a bigger coed school, including SJC, DJO and BI. But, once you are considering those schools, you are considering location, friends, sports, etc, and not just academic rigor, so that’s why people are arguing the SJC, Scholars Program or not, is not so prestigious and rigorous that it is worth going to over a place that is closer to your house and friends.

I would not consider Visi academically better than SJC’s Scholar program. When DD was in 8th grade, both she and us had Visi as the first choice, primarily because it seemed more prestigious. But after several visits (open houses, shadow days) and asking lots of questions regarding their curriculum and evaluating school fit, we were much less impressed by Visi. They didn’t offer as many AP or honors classes, art classes were abominable and remedial, sports program wasn’t all that impressive. She scored 99% on the HSPT and was accepted into both schools, we chose SJC’s Scholars and the Cadet Corps program. DD loves SJC and all it has offered, and we have not regretted the decision. Icing on the cake - tuition at SJC is so much less, especially with the Presidential merit scholarship.

Completely reasonable choice, but again, you admit you thought Visi was more prestigious, and you ended up choosing the Scholars program at SJC bc of more AP classes, art and sports - not just academic rigor and prestige. Plus, you’re also comparing an honors program to a school as a whole. When just comparing Visi vs SJC, Visi is more prestigious and rigorous.

I guess if all you’re interested in is prestige and meeting other country club families then Visi might be a good choice. But if you’re interested in good academics, then I wouldn’t choose Visi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a bunch of snobs!

There is academic rigor at DJO, BI (which has a Scholars program), etc. I realize that doesn’t fit some narratives, but it doesn’t make it any less true.

Ignoring everyone who is arguing about commute times to schools, the conversation is really about relative rigor. Saying DJO/BI are less rigorous overall than SJCHS (the Scholars program), and certainly compared to Visi or Gonzaga, isn’t snobby, it’s just acknowledging the academic stratification that already exists in the local HS ecosystem.

And looping it back to the thread topic: merit strategy tells you a lot. Schools like DJO don’t offer 50% tuition to 99th-percentile HSPT kids out of generosity. They do it because that level of incentive is needed to get those families to pause and seriously consider the option over schools that don’t have to “discount” that aggressively.

So yes, rigor exists at DJO and BI. Individual students and individual tracks can be great at any school. But if they were perceived by the market as academically equivalent to SJCHS (Scholars)/Visi/Gonzaga, they wouldn’t need to make that particular financial argument quite so loudly.

But DJO AP and honors classes are mostly equivalent to SJCHS scholars. Certainly not worth making your kid commute to Maryland if you live in Nova. Gonzaga/Visi are a different type of experience. I am not sure the academic results at either are that much better based on what the schools disclose, but it will definitely be a different experience at either of those schools.

Strong students do fine at most schools, particularly around this area where there are lots of good options.

Yeah, no.

Between Gonzaga, SJC and DJO, DJO is the dumpster. Fire.

Obviously you didn’t learn a lot of grammar. Among. Not between. I went to a crappy public school and learned this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[list]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If academic rigor and prestige are your only factors, you probably shouldn’t be looking at just Catholic schools anyway. There’s plenty of DC schools that are a higher tier.

If you are only considering Catholic, then Visi, Gonzaga, GP or Stone Ridge are the first tier of Catholic schools, just academically speaking.

Then, the other ones come in, if you want a bigger coed school, including SJC, DJO and BI. But, once you are considering those schools, you are considering location, friends, sports, etc, and not just academic rigor, so that’s why people are arguing the SJC, Scholars Program or not, is not so prestigious and rigorous that it is worth going to over a place that is closer to your house and friends.

I would not consider Visi academically better than SJC’s Scholar program. When DD was in 8th grade, both she and us had Visi as the first choice, primarily because it seemed more prestigious. But after several visits (open houses, shadow days) and asking lots of questions regarding their curriculum and evaluating school fit, we were much less impressed by Visi. They didn’t offer as many AP or honors classes, art classes were abominable and remedial, sports program wasn’t all that impressive. She scored 99% on the HSPT and was accepted into both schools, we chose SJC’s Scholars and the Cadet Corps program. DD loves SJC and all it has offered, and we have not regretted the decision. Icing on the cake - tuition at SJC is so much less, especially with the Presidential merit scholarship.

Completely reasonable choice, but again, you admit you thought Visi was more prestigious, and you ended up choosing the Scholars program at SJC bc of more AP classes, art and sports - not just academic rigor and prestige. Plus, you’re also comparing an honors program to a school as a whole. When just comparing Visi vs SJC, Visi is more prestigious and rigorous.

I guess if all you’re interested in is prestige and meeting other country club families then Visi might be a good choice. But if you’re interested in good academics, then I wouldn’t choose Visi.

Everyone I know who attended or attends Visi is smart. Across the board. They are doing something right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If academic rigor and prestige are your only factors, you probably shouldn’t be looking at just Catholic schools anyway. There’s plenty of DC schools that are a higher tier.

If you are only considering Catholic, then Visi, Gonzaga, GP or Stone Ridge are the first tier of Catholic schools, just academically speaking.

Then, the other ones come in, if you want a bigger coed school, including SJC, DJO and BI. But, once you are considering those schools, you are considering location, friends, sports, etc, and not just academic rigor, so that’s why people are arguing the SJC, Scholars Program or not, is not so prestigious and rigorous that it is worth going to over a place that is closer to your house and friends.

I would not consider Visi academically better than SJC’s Scholar program. When DD was in 8th grade, both she and us had Visi as the first choice, primarily because it seemed more prestigious. But after several visits (open houses, shadow days) and asking lots of questions regarding their curriculum and evaluating school fit, we were much less impressed by Visi. They didn’t offer as many AP or honors classes, art classes were abominable and remedial, sports program wasn’t all that impressive. She scored 99% on the HSPT and was accepted into both schools, we chose SJC’s Scholars and the Cadet Corps program. DD loves SJC and all it has offered, and we have not regretted the decision. Icing on the cake - tuition at SJC is so much less, especially with the Presidential merit scholarship.

Completely reasonable choice, but again, you admit you thought Visi was more prestigious, and you ended up choosing the Scholars program at SJC bc of more AP classes, art and sports - not just academic rigor and prestige. Plus, you’re also comparing an honors program to a school as a whole. When just comparing Visi vs SJC, Visi is more prestigious and rigorous.

The problem is that Visi doesn’t have any sort of honors or scholars program, they just have the basic program for everyone and, academically, it just doesn’t compare to SJC’s Scholars program. When we visited Visi, we sat in on some of the presentations for the various departments and talked to the teachers about the classes, and they just seemed so average.

Visi might not have a specific honors program, but they have plenty of honors and AP classes, and I like that anyone can take them with the requisite grades/recommendations. My DD is there and has taken almost exclusively honors and AP classes when available to her and she is getting an excellent education. I do think the traditional college prep classes are easier than the honors/AP, obviously, but there's no way they are 'average' amongst the local Catholic high schools. I would add that Visi gives very little merit money, because they don't have to-they have a high percentage of students enrolled who are top students able to take high rigor classes. As another PP noted, they don't need to lure in top students with money or a specific honors program-the whole school functions as such.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a bunch of snobs!

There is academic rigor at DJO, BI (which has a Scholars program), etc. I realize that doesn’t fit some narratives, but it doesn’t make it any less true.

Ignoring everyone who is arguing about commute times to schools, the conversation is really about relative rigor. Saying DJO/BI are less rigorous overall than SJCHS (the Scholars program), and certainly compared to Visi or Gonzaga, isn’t snobby, it’s just acknowledging the academic stratification that already exists in the local HS ecosystem.

And looping it back to the thread topic: merit strategy tells you a lot. Schools like DJO don’t offer 50% tuition to 99th-percentile HSPT kids out of generosity. They do it because that level of incentive is needed to get those families to pause and seriously consider the option over schools that don’t have to “discount” that aggressively.

So yes, rigor exists at DJO and BI. Individual students and individual tracks can be great at any school. But if they were perceived by the market as academically equivalent to SJCHS (Scholars)/Visi/Gonzaga, they wouldn’t need to make that particular financial argument quite so loudly.

Fair enough, but I do find it odd that it’s only the Scholars program at SJC that everyone thinks is so academically rigorous and prestigious and then that is being compared to DJO as a whole. What about the SJC Scholars program vs all AP/honors at DJO? Would it really be that different? Are the college outcomes that different? And, if it really is, DJO should look into starting a similar program.

Not sure, but this is a thread about which high merit scores = merit money, which is probably why you see the scholars focus. I suspect more of the SJC scholars kids get the merit $.

I think only the scholars get academic merit money. You can also audition for the various music programs and receive scholarship money for that. Not sure about athletics, we aren’t in that world, but between scholars and a music scholarship, my child received about 1/3 off the tuition/year. She was deciding between scholars and Visi, when we broke the numbers down for her, it was a no brainer. $20k+ delta means a lot of extra money for our family to allocate to other priorities.